Yes, it is shared with Toronto, and I think the Sox are going to be in this dogfight until the bitter end with both Toronto and the Oreos–especially since they still have 6 and 7 more games, respectively, with each ballclub. As a matter of fact, after tonight, the Sox ONLY play AL East teams for the rest of the year –3 against Tampa Bay, and 7 against the Skanks (Blech).

There are still MANY outstanding issues with the Sox as they head into this final 3 weeks of the regular season, such as will Stephen Wright be back, and if so, which pitcher will they get. And I am sure I am not alone in being majorly P*ssed about how he came upon this shoulder injury–arguably one of, if not the best pitcher on this team has NO BUSINESS pinch running.

NONE.

And then there are things like Eduardo Rodriquez who pitched a GEM on Sunday, even taking a no-no into the 8th inning, only to have Craig Kimbrel screw the pooch and blow the save, and take the loss…against fracking Oakland no less, a team they have beat the snot out of in 2016…

But there are some bright spots too…

Like Holy Buckets, the Sox may actually have a 20-game winner again, something the Sox have not had since 2007 (!!!) when Josh Beckett went 20-7 and the Sox won the World Series. And what is even WEIRDER is that it’s Rick Porcello, the pitcher who had a 9-15 record in 2015. And now people are actually including him in Cy Young Conversations. He currently is 19-3, and has the most wins in the majors…

And all of the young-uns. Mookie Betts is seriously in contention for the MVP (as well he should be); JBJ, who at .273 with 23(!!) homers and 79 RBI’s is finally hitting, and not just a massively amazing outfielder. And Xander Bogaerts, who is an amazing shortstop, hitting .302 with 17 and may have finally stopped the revolving door that has been that position since Nomar left in 2004…

And even That Clay Person has been sucking less, pitching well enough for the win in last night’s contest which brought the Sox even with the Blue Jays. He has actually been pretty good filling in for Stephen Wright, and since he tends to be streaky, it could not come at a better time.

His line: 6.2 IP, giving up 1 run (on naturally, a homer) on 8 hits, while walking none and striking out 6. He threw 87 pitches, 61 for strikes. And the bullpen only gave up one more hit, and struck out 3 in the remaining frames…

And Koji is back from his pectoral strain and says he feels 100%. While he will never be as transcendental as he was in 2013, being more effective than he was earlier this year would certainly help things along…

Also, it appears that Andrew Benintendi is recovering faster than expected, and has resumed baseball activities. John Farrell will still not commit to a time frame for his return, the odds of them happening are certainly better than they were, say last week.

So, the #1 Prospect in all of baseball, Yoan Moncada has made the leap to the Bigs, skipping Pawtucket like the #2, Andrew Benintendi. Unfortunately, his transition has been a bit rockier. Since his activation on Thursday, he has played in 5 games (4 starts), and is currently hitting .235 with 10 strikeouts in 17 AB–including 4 times in last night’s contest. Ouch. In his fielding at third base he has only made 1 error in 15 total chances, which isn’t terrible… I think he’ll be OK. He’s only 21 and while Benitendi’s adapting curve was faster, every player is different. Just look at JBJ…

Coming up: David Price takes the bump tonight, going for his 15th win, in the last Left Coast and middle of the night game for the 2016 campaign. He is opposed by Jarred Cossart, who has not won a start in 10 tries with the Padres. Holy Hell, let THAT trend continue. 1st pitch 9:10pm…